by Japtem
Through that method, Ark successfully won 6 auction goods.
'Alright, shall we check the results?'
Ark immediately ran over to the appraisal store.
The results: 4 were profitable, 2 were losses. Even with the auction and identification fee, there was a profit of 4 Gold left.
Inwardly, Ark cried out in joy. 'This is it!'
Though he wasn't completely convinced about the auction, 4 Gold was left even though he'd only gotten the cheapest goods. It wasn't much money, but the important thing was that he'd definitely made profit. If he won more expensive goods, the profit would rise too. In addition, if he had good luck he could even hope for a jackpot item. It was the fastest way to make money.
'Alright, I'm gonna catch my share with this!'
After that, Ark used the same method to win two more times. This time, both made profit and he was able to earn 20 Gold. Money was rushing in just by sneaking around the auction and making bids. After seizing 24 Gold in just 20 minutes or so, the auction was so fun for Ark that he was quivering with excitement.
'To think making money was so easy!'
As he gained confidence, Ark was emboldened. 'Alright, shall I try a bigger investment this time?'
The more money you invest the larger the profits. Ark chased Vidus around as he bid on very important auction goods. And after Vidus passed, Ark quickly raised the bid.
He chose 6 goods going for over 50 Gold. He poured out a fortune of 300 Gold!
As if fortune smiled upon him, Ark won all 6 bids.
'Hehehe, looking at past results 4 of these should be good items. Since there's been a profit of about 20% more than the investment, I should make 60 Gold. There's no time. I should take care of these quickly and do it again.'
Ark took the auctioned goods and hastily sought out the appraisal shop.
"Welcome, ah, is it these this time?" Once Ark became a regular, the item appraisal shop's Doltorun became pleasant as well. "Then I'll identify them right away."
*Fshhh!* Looking at the information window with expectant eyes, Ark's face was drained of blood.
Broken Armor
Armor Type
Plate Armor
Defense
1
Durability
2/2
Weight
80
Usage Restriction
More than 150 Strength
Armor in tatters from many battles. In this condition, it can't be used even after repairing it. You can only melt it down and recycle it.
Value: 10 Silver
The item he'd bought for a whopping 60 Gold was recyclable trash. He was so dumbfounded that laughter started to leak out.
"The item you brought this time was really no good. Well, this is luck too."
"T-there's no way! Another one, identify another one!"
"Work is welcomed anytime."
As Doltorun checked the items one by one, Ark's face became steadily paler.
The remaining items were recyclable trash like the first one.
The most expensive one was only 2 Gold. Calculating his investment and loss, 400 Gold went up in smoke. At the same time, his extremely elevated mood plummeted to the ground.
Was this the feeling of not even being able to scream?
'W-what have I done?' His mind reeled in the dizziness.
400 Gold... in just a few minutes, he'd lost one month of his mother's hospital bill.
People who'd gone crazy with gambling and became homeless after losing their house came to Ark's mind. Whenever he saw such people, he thought they were pathetic. Though they had learned again and again, he couldn't understand why they were driven so far.
But Ark had no right to curse them. He was no different from them.
Once he made a little profit in the beginning, he'd gotten full of himself, as if he'd grasped the magic all on his own. Why did he believe such a weak idea was an absolute method and not question it? It was probably money, which clouded a person's eyes--- the charm of Gold.
When Ark staggered out of the appraisal shop, Vidus rose from his seat in front of the shop and approached him.
"Have you come to your senses now?"
About to pass him, Ark flinched and raised his head. "What do you...?"
"I've spent two months of real time in the blind auction. During two months, do you think there was no one who took what was mine with a method like yours?"
"What? T-then you..?"
"That's right, since you were using a very dirty method, I joked a bit to teach you a lesson. Even so, I didn't think you'd actually buy all of them. You must've lost about 300-400 Gold. How do you feel? Your insides are souring, right?"
"Y-you---!"
Ark clenched his fists. 'A joke? Did you say it was A JOKE? Dammit, it may have been a joke to you, but it was a month of my mother's hospital bills to me! After making me lose them, you call it a joke? Is that what you spouted?'
But Ark clamped his jaw down and swallowed the words surging up his throat.
Ark had used him first. And he had never forced Ark to buy the items. Ark was the one who used Vidus as he wanted and was tricked. As upsetting as it was, he had no right to curse Vidus.
After glaring at Vidus, Ark hunched his shoulders and turned away.
"The rascals fooled by me all lost their marbles and spewed curses, but you're a bit different. Your actions are dirty, but your fundamental character is okay." Vidus pushed up his glasses. "However, the fact that you are stupid and lazy is the same as the others. I really can't understand why people get one thing but completely miss the other."
"What?"
"Using me alone may be a good method. Because when I choose an item, I can ascertain profit with a chance of roughly 70%. But why is it that you or the others aren't curious at all about how I can choose good items with a 70% chance? That's the problem with young fellows these days. They only think about making money easily."
"...!"
Ark finally understood where he went wrong. As he followed Vidus, Ark had considered himself clever. But after listening to Vidus' words, wasn't he wretchedly stupid? Ark had definitely only thought of making money easily, and he hadn't even thought about how Vidus was able to pick out items so well. His eyes had been clouded by the thought of getting fish that he hadn't even tried to learn how to fish.
As Ark turned with surprised eyes, Vidus laughed as he said, "Well, since the situation is like this and I did cause you a huge loss I'll give you a bit of advice. This game is virtual reality. The laws of reality apply directly to most of the things that exist here. Do you get what I'm saying? Just as items are worth money for a reason in reality, it means items in game were also worth money for a reason."
"Reason it's worth money..."
"One more thing--- I work in an auction-related job in the real world as well. To say simply, it's not something a youngster with no experience should recklessly stick their nose in. Learn your lesson from this and throw away your dream of getting rich quick. There's no such thing as a way to make money easily in the world." With that, Vidus went towards the auction again.
Ark mumbled as he stared blankly at Vidus' back. 'He works in auctions in real life, too?'
It finally felt like the fog filling his mind was lifting. Just as Vidus had said, this place was a virtual reality. In other words, it was a copy of reality.
Until now, Ark had just thought of the auction goods as unidentified items. It was a misunderstanding. He had misunderstood everything from the beginning.
In the first place, there was no such thing as an unidentified item in reality or in New World. They weren't identified, but the shape of the item could be checked by eye.
He should have personally judged the value with his eyes, not with an information window. That was the strategy for the blind auction!
'Holy shit, how could I have just left everything to luck?'
He'd been tricked by the fact that the blind auction was in the casino district. Beca
use of it, he had unconsciously thought it was a gamble. But the blind auction was not a place to gamble. Rather, it was the most realistic place. The ability to carefully appraise an item and judge the value. It was a place to test and compete with that ability.
'In the end, that means you can work hard to succeed. If there's a means, I can't just give up like this.'
His tenacity flared up.
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Hero Assembly
"I deliberately gave him advice but he still came back? He's a much more foolish fellow than I thought." Vidus tutted after he found Ark fearlessly snooping around the auction again. "Well, no need to concern myself about it. Since he took a beating once, he won't follow me. If he does, I'll just give him another bitter experience."
Just as Vidus predicted, Ark didn't follow him around. Actually, he didn't even participate in the auction for a few days. He just went around the auction looking at the items with hungry eyes. Ark finally participated in the auction after three days of nosing around. He bought cheap items worth a few Silver and checked them, but 80% were failures. He suffered a loss of nearly 20 Gold in no time, but Ark didn't give up.
'There's definitely something to it.' Ark steadily bought cheap auction goods after that.
Two days later, he began to see a change, his success rate went up from 20% to 30%, and once it started to rise, it didn't take very long to rise to 40%.
'I'm finally starting to get the hang of it. It's simpler than I thought.' After losing another 50 Gold or so; Ark felt certain of his perception.
Ark had experienced countless part-time jobs over the last 5 years. He tried things from basic newspaper and milk delivery, to sales and business. Among them, he especially remembered the job he'd obtained from Gwon Hwa-rang's introduction, working at an antiques store.
Ark came in contact with items from all around the world in that job. There weren't many items considered as hard as antiques to value. Things that looked extremely expensive turned out to be worthless, and sometimes the opposite is true. Therefore, losses or gains of thousands of Won hung with the Identifier's judgment.
He never formally learned it, however, as he worked there the ability to guesstimate the value of antiques by eye and ear developed. There are many deciding factors like luster, shape, use, utility, and scarcity but they all result into one value.
The amount of heart and soul the maker poured into the item was critical. When an outstanding craftsman makes an item with their heart and soul, even if it looked shabby at first glance, something was 'unique' about it. One couldn't put a finger on it, but it definitely felt different.
They say practice makes perfect.
'Ah, that one's no good. Something's not right about it.' Most of the items he thought of in that way were fakes.
'Hm? That one's better than it looks?' Those were the valued antiques worth hundreds of thousands of Won.
'This place is virtual reality; item details are the same as in real life.' In order to confirm this, Ark spent a few days going around inspecting the auction goods. It wasn't a shocker, but New World also followed the same rules as the real world. This meant it was possible to know the value even if he didn't get it appraised and check the info.
After reaching a certain degree of conviction, he started buying items. By getting the items identified, he checked the differences from the actual feeling and steadily corrected his mistakes. It required an enormous amount of perseverance and concentration.
After spending several days like that, he stopped encountering losses.
But that wasn't all. As he checked countless auction goods, he sometimes encountered a totally unexpected bonus.
Old Coin (Ancient Relic)
This is an old coin used hundreds of years ago. The living conditions in those days can be glimpsed by the design carved into the coin's surface. The coin is a relic of the past, but it is popular among collectors, so it can be sold for a high price.
Value: 10 gold
Bonus from acquiring information about the ancient relic, Old Coin:
Knowledge of Ancient Relics +1, Intelligence +1, Fame +5.
There were items relevant to Ancient Relics mixed in with the Unidentified items. If he had such an item identified, and held it, he received a bonus to his Knowledge of Ancient Relics stat.
'Now that I think about it, the Mysterious Stone Fragment that was in Gallic's stomach required 50 Knowledge of Ancient Relics to check the info. I was worried about how to raise the stat, but there's a method like this.'
Currently, the stat was at 36. Although it only rose by 1, there were still many auction goods. It wouldn't be too hard to get to 50 if he steadily appraised them. Moreover, the Intelligence that rose along with the Knowledge of Ancient Relics was critically necessary for Ark, who summoned Familiars.
'I found yet another reason to stay in the auction house. Okay, I'm getting more and more motivated.'
Once Ark made up his mind, it was scary how persistent he was. Besides a few hours of sleep, Ark just about lived in the auction house. Slowly, he grasped how much to bid for each item. As his success rate steadily increased, his money also started to pile up, if only a little.
Once he made some surplus capital, he dragged Sid to the auction.
"Sid-nim, from now on I will point out some items, so please bid on them at the auction closing time. Of course, give up on it if it exceeds the max sum I tell you and aim for another item."
"What? But I was just about to leave for a trade..."
"Please do this as a favor. Didn't we cross Grey Ridge together?" Ark held Sid's shoulders and stressed Gray Ridge.
'This isn't receiving help, but holding them by the scruff of their neck.'
In the end, even Sid became a zombie wandering the auction house.
Completely caught by Ark, Sid heaved sighs; however, it was profitable for him as well. Ark stockpiled the items from the auction and sold them through Sid. Thanks to this, Ark made a profit and Sid's EXP rose steadily. Of course, no matter how trustworthy Sid was, the Trade Contract was indispensable!
Thanks to Sid, Ark gained some free time and immediately started another job. He re-auctioned items he'd bought cheaply when there were few people.
'This one is can be sold for 13 gold at most. Since it has Intermediate Protect, once I spend 10 Gold on identification, there'll only be 3 Gold left.' He re-auctioned such an item with a starting bid of 3 Gold. However, Ark wasn't as naive as to just wait for the item to sell itself.
The auctioneer can't place a bid on their own items. But an NPC can.
Ark used that fact to summon Dedric and made him participate in the auction. Ark had to pay if Dedric won the bid, but since Dedric wasn't the one who submitted the item, it wasn't a violation of the rules. The small fee he had to pay to put the item up for auction wasn't much of a loss, either.
He had hit upon the auction's blind spot.
Ark had Dedric and Sid raise the prices on his items. The price was rapidly increasing, so of course it seemed like a good item to clueless people. After doing that for a few hours, they hooked 1-2 blind fish. At that point, the two who had been raising the price for a while immediately backed off.
Even without seeing it, he knew what the expression of the players who took the item they won to the identification shop would be.
"A-Ark-nim. This is a scam."
"Of course not. Not knowing is a sin, that's the world of auction."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, it is," Ark concluded, with a completely remorseless expression. What he said wasn't wrong. After all, Ark had learned it from Vidus.
Ark spent ten days like this. Except for when he appraised and sold auction goods, he lived attached to the auction house.
Money kept coming and going so crazily that he couldn't tell how much he made or lost. One thing was for certain: he was making money! No, it was only inevitable he would make money.
'By now, I've probably recovered more than the
400 Gold I wasted in the beginning.'
It was what Ark was thinking of as he headed to the auction house again when a message box appeared with a cheerful sound effect.
You have learned a new skill.
Discerning Eye (Special, Passive, Beginner): You have seriously identified countless items for a long time. As a result, you have gained an outstanding eye for sorting out items.
Mana Cost: 20
* You are now able to clear Low-level Protect of unidentified items.
* You can now immediately determine the value of items whose market prices have been checked before.
'W-what's this?' Ark's mouth fell wide open.
The Identification skill could only be learned by production classes with over 300 Wisdom or Magicians with more than 500 Intelligence.
The only exception was to use a Rare skill book. However, Ark, a Dark Walker, was able to learn a skill of the same effect without spending a single penny. In addition, he also gained the ability to immediately determine the value of an item, which was only possible at the identification shop.
It wouldn't have been possible if he hadn't sharpened his eye at the antiques store.
"That's right, in this game, if one fully concentrates on one thing then a related skill will form. However, to think I was able to learn an Appraisal skill when my class isn't Production or Magician-related."
There was a benefit to spending over 10 days in the auction house. The new skill further increased Ark's earnings. It was only low-grade, but 10 identifications was 50 Gold. In another five days, even after selling 300 Gold to pay the hospital fees, he still has 900 Gold piled up in his bag.
In the end though, there was a limit to the amount of money he could make at the auction house.
"I don't see any more useful items now." Ark looked around the auction with regretful eyes.
It has been half a month since he started his auction house life. Now, Ark had a success rate of almost over 70%. Since he'd bought all the useful items like crazy, there were only lousy-looking goods left.